A Man in the Land- Reid/Leftwich (VA) 1921 Davis CC
[From Davis; More Traditional Ballads from Virginia; 1960. Davis' notes follow.
R. Matteson Jr. 2014]
LADY ISABEL AND THE ELF-KNIGHT
(Child, No. 4)
Child observed that "of all ballads this has perhaps obtained the widest circulation" over all of Europe. It has similarly in the present century been found in oral tradition in many shires of England, in Australia, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and spread generally through the eastern half of the United States. This international popularity is reflected in the twenty-eight earlier Virginia texts, of which nineteen, plus seven tunes, were printed in TBVa, and in the twelve new items described in FSVa, of which only three are here presented, two of them with recorded tunes.
The new texts add little to the body of information already presented. The common confusion of the names of the heroine and her bird will be found again, as will the rarer confusion of parent and parrot (TBVa, D). Version AA, however, retains the proper name "Collin" as found in Child D and H. The name occurs infrequently in America, where it is also represented by the form "colleen." Also preserved in AA is the initial "following" stanza. (as in TBVa, A,B, C, D, E). This stanza may be a survival of a demonic enchantment formula (Child D) or of an aspect of courtship or seduction (Child C). If the former is correct, tire stanza exhibits the only trace in the ballad of the supernatural character of the would-be murderer. The legendary and fantastic bird, blessed with the gifts of reason and conversation, has dwindled to a mere talking parrot-an obvious rationalization of the primitive belief in the "bird-soul." See Wimberly, pp. 44 ff.
The newer Virginia texts still seem to correspond more closely to the Child series C-G (and Sargent and Kittredge H) than to A and B. They represent Coffin's Story Type A. The narrative is developed in three scenes or stages, separated by the two journeys forth and back: the seduction or elopement, the waterside scene ending in the drowning of the man, the girl's return home and the dialogue with the parrot. In spite of resemblances, the three texts printed here are quite distinct variants: notice, for instance, the complete difference in the three first stanzas, which begin, respectively, as follows:
He followed me up and he followed me down [AA]
"Go bring me a portion of your father's gold [BB]
There was a man out in the land [CC]
Other differences of diction, stanzaic structure, dialect, and tunes will be noted. All three end, however, with the parrot's "cover-up" remark about the cats.
The excluded items add little beyond verbal variants, though the singer of one variant reports that once, when he was a boy (in Southampton County?), he attended an evening wedding and that after the ceremony and during the wedding supper the groom sang this long "ballet-song" to the bride. A not too appropriate selection for the occasion, one would think.
Bronson (I, 39-100) has amassed no fewer than 141 tunes (with texts) for this widely disseminated ballad, though all musical records of it are subsequent to the first quarter of the nineteenth century. He divides the tunes into two large classes, ninety-seven in Group A and forty-four in Group B. Of the seven Virginia tunes printed in TBVa, four are classified in Group A, which concerns both British and American variants, and three in Group B, which includes the more distinctive American melodic tradition of the ballad, "not shared by England, but probably imported from Scotland." Of the two new recorded tunes from Virginia, AA especially seems to add something of value to the musical tradition of the ballad. Both AA and BB clearly belong to Bronson's Group B, although AA lacks the characteristic first cadential pause on the fourth degree of the scale.
CC. "A Man in the Land" or "The Dapple Gray." Collected by Miss Juliet Fauntleloy, of Altavista, Va. Sung by Miss Caroline Reid, of Altavista, Va., who learned it from Mrs. Leftwich in Bedford County. Campbell County. October, 1921. This version follows TBVa F but adds the concluding stanzas describing the return home and the conversation with the parrot. The curious participial construction of stanzas 12 and 14 recalls Child E and the nonsense line at 7C may reflect phonetically the word "ruffian" as found in the same version.
1 There was a man out in the land
Who courted the maiden fair,
And promised to take her out to the North land
And there their marriage should be.
2 Says, "Get some of your father's gold
And some of Your mother's feed'
And two the best horses that stands in the stall,
That stands by forty and three."
3 She got some of her father's gold
And some of her mother's feed,
And two the best horses that stood in the stall'
That stood by forty and three.
4 She mounted all on her milky white horse
And led her dapple gray,
And rode till she came to the great salt sea,
Three hours before it was day.
5 "Dismount, dismount your milky white horse,
Deliver them unto me,
For six pretty maidens I drownded here,
And the seventh one you shall be.
6 "Take off, take off your silky white clothes
And deliver them unto me,
For they are too great, too grand, too rich,
To rock in this great salt sea."
7 "If I must take off my silky white clothes,
Please turn your back on me,
For I think it not fit, for as often as you[1]
An undressed ladY to see'"
8 He turned his back all unto her,
And she wept bitterly,
She grabbed him around his waist so small
And tumbled him into the sea.
9 He waved, oh high, and he waved, oh low,
And waved till he came to her side.
"Take hold my hand, my Pretty Polly,
And you shall be my bride."
10 "Lie there, lie there, you horrid old wretch,
Lie there, lie there," said she.
"For six pretty maidens you drownded in there,
And the seventh one drownded you."
11 She mounted all on her milky white horse
And led her dapple gray
And rode till she came to her father's house
One hour before it was day.
12 A parrot being up in his cage so high
And unto her did say,
"What is the matter, my pretty Polly,
You tarry so long before day?"
13 "Hold your tongue, hold your tongue, my pretty parrot,
Don't tell no tales on me.
Your cage shall be lined with glittering gold
And the doors with ivory."
14 The father being up at his window so high
And unto her did say,
"What is the matter, my pretty parrot,
You tarry so long before day?"
15 "There's matter enough," the parrot replies,
"There's matter enough," said she.
"Two cats have been up in my cage so high,
And I'm afraid they will catch me."
1. for a ruffian as you